Method of manufacturing solid core flush doors



Jan- 20,1959 R. F. LoETscHER 2,869,598`

i METHOD 0F MANUFACTURING SOLID CORE FLUSH DooRs Filed oct. 28, 1954 2Sheets-Sheet 1 lllll ||VI/IIITIIII||||I Jan. 20, 1959 R. F. LOETscHERMETHOD OF MANUFACTURING SOLID CORE.' FLUSH DOORS 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 FiledOct. 28, 1954 Y WMM/y A.Zd .naam @M @FZ 7l/f W y @y METHOD OFMANUFACTURING SOLID CORE FLUSH DOORS Robert F. Loetsclier, Dubuque,Iowa, assignor to Farley it.; oetscher Mfg. Co., Dubuque, Iowa, acorporation o owa Application October 28, 1954, Serial No. 465,379 4Claims. (Cl. 144-309) My invention relates to improvements in compositeflush type doors, table tops and other panels, preferably of wood.

It is old to build solid core flush doors of the general character inquestion by assembling a core cemented together of a multiplicity ofrelatively small pieces of relatively inexpensive Wood. Such cores arethen cut to size, planed otl to smoothness and veneers are attached tothe opposite faces of the door to mask the built up glued solid door. lnactual practice, it is difficult if not practically impossiblecommercially to glue a multiplicity of small pieces of wood together insuch wise that a plane surface is presented for the application of theveneer. So in the past, it has been necessary after the core is gluedup, to plane off one or more, perhaps both faces of the core before theveneer is applied and it is also necessary to plane oli or cut to properdimension one or more of the top, bottom and side edges. This makes itnecessary to use up in the manufacture of the core much wood which mustbe cut away before the door is completed.

I propose a door or panel having top and bottom rails and stilesdefining a frame which will receive the proper number of pieces of corewood. Each core piece will be separately machined to proper dimensionsand the pieces will be assembled in the frame with a sufficientclearance between them so that they may be loosely assembled. They willbe held in place by being separately glued to the front and back veneerswhich form the front and back faces of the door.

This avoids the necessity of first gluing together the core pieces toform a core, and cutting the core to proper dimension to lit into theframe. A substantial saving in labor and material results from the factthat after the pieces are glued together, it is not necessary to planeoff from the face of the core to compensate for different corethicknesses, warping or lack of indexing. None of these dillicultiestake place when the individual pieces are properly sized, placed in theframe and separately cemented or glued to the veneers.

Other objects will appear from time to time throughout the specificationand claims.

My invention is illustrated more or less diagrammatically in theaccompanying drawings, wherein Figure 1 is a side elevation of the doorwith parts cut away in its final, completed form;

Figure 2 is a door on an enlarged scale with veneer face removed showingthe relationship between the adjacent core pieces; p

Figure 3 is a section on an enlarged scale along the line 3-3 of Figurel', l

Figure 4 is a section through the Work bench on which the door isassembled showing the door in process of assembly;

Figure 5 is a section Like parts are indicated by like charactersthroughout the specification and drawings.

Referring to Figure 1, the door has a top rail 1, a

along the line 5-5 of Figure 4.

:it States Patent ice bottom rail 2 joined by stiles 3 and 4. A seriesof wood blocks 5 are held between the door frame formed of the parts 1,2, 3 and 4 and the veneer, in this case, a threeply veneer 6, iscemented to 1, 2, 3 and 4 and to the blocks 5, there being a veneer 7 onthe other side of the door.

Referring to Figures 2 and 3, it will be noted that there is clearancebetween many if not all of the pieces and especially as at 8 between thelongitudinally arranged lines of core pieces and staggered clearances at9 between the core pieces in a single line, and that each core piece isseparately glued to the veneer faces 6 and 7 as at 10 but the corepieces themselves are not glued together. The clearance between the corepieces is just sufficient for assembly, for example-we must have a doorwhere the distance between the inner faces of the two stiles wastwenty-six inches. The total width of the core pieces might betwenty-live and three-quarters inches or thereabout. Thus the quarterinch clearance would be divided up among the number of the core formingpieces. The same situation would prevail with respect to the distancebetween the top and bottom rails. The importance of this clearance wouldappear when the method of assembling the door is considered.

Referring to Figures 4 and 5, 11 is a relatively thin table top carriedby suitable legs 12. A conveyor 13 feeds a line of core pieces to thetable. The core pieces in a line can vary with respect to length butmust have their sides parallel and perpendicular to the top and bottomfaces. The conveyor tends to feed such a strip into the table and by anysuitable means when a strip of approximately the proper length hasbeenfed onto the table, the saw 14 will cut the strip to right length justenough less than the distance between the top and bottom rails 1 and 2so that it can t with Working clearance between them. The operator thenmoves the platen 15 across the table pressing the first strip againstthe member 16 which will form one of the stiles of the door. The platen15 is moved back, another strip is fed out and cut to length and thenmoved against the first strip until a proper width of core is built upon the table against the member 16. The top and bottom rails are thenattached to the member 16 across the opposed end of the core. Meanwhile,the lower veneer 17 is moved under the table 11, having rst been gluedso that the lower veneer is in register With the assembled core butseparated therefrom by the thin table top 11. Thereafter the veneer 17traveling on the moving plate 18 will be moved in the direction of thearrows: in Figure 4, at the same rate that the assembled core is movedso that as the two move together, successive rows of blocks drop ontothe glued veneer 17 until the entire piece of veneer with the blocksresting on the glued face thereof rests on the table top 19. The othermember 16 is then put in place. The top veneer is coated with glue andplaced upon the assembly and the Whole door including core, rails,Stiles and veneer as at 2t) are moved onto the cornpressor 21 wherepressure is applied and the glue allowed to set. Thus no machining orsizing of the core takes place after assembly. Individual core blockscan easily be dimensioned so that they build up when assembled a core ofproper size to tit the frame formed by the members which in thecompleted door are the rails and Stiles. Movement of the core blockswith respect to one another may take place to compensate for slightchanges in size or relative size of the blocks prior to the time whenthe glue is caused to set under pressure. Glue when wet is a sufcientlubricant to permit such relative adjustment of the blocks forming thecore and the result is a core made up of properly sized blocks assembledin such wise that they can be cemented to the veneer without thenecessity of any lateral pressure on blocks, Stiles or rails and theclearance between the individual blocks is so slight that nails orscrews can'be used to attach molding or hardware or anything elsedesired, to the door.

As a modification of this method, the core pieces may be fed out andarranged in size and shape so as to provide a core to ll the door. Thenthe assembled core, the pieces all dry, are moved into register with theglued veneer either by longitudinal or transverse movement as the casemay be or even the veneer might be applied to the upper surface of thecore pieces. After that the rails and stiles may be applied defining andframing the core. in assembly, since all the core pieces `are loose andsince there is clearance desired between them, it will happen that thepieces will not always be in absolute alignment, the clearance betweenadjacent pieces will vary. The point is that no mattei' how they areassembled, no matter with what care the assembly takes place, there willalways be sucient clearance at all points so that the individual blockmay register with one another and engage the front and rear faces of thedoor and be cemented or glued thereto so that the blocks themselves willnot cause any deformation of the veneer or skins forming the front andback faces of the door. Those elements will be held in position anotheras they engage the core.

I claim:

l. The method of manufacturing a solid core for flush doors and the likewhich consists in first sizing a multiplicity of core forming separatepieces to uniform thickness and width, feeding out a successive seriesof strings of such pieces abutting end to end, vcutting each string offsuccessively to the desired length for the length of the core, movingthe strings sidewise, feeding out another string, cutting it ott andmoving it sidewise until a loosely assembled body of core forming piecesare rassembled side by side and end to end of approximately the lengthand width desired, then framing the core with top and bottom railsandopposed Stiles, gluing a veneer face to stiles, rails and core formingpieces, the core forming pieces being in loose contact with one anotherbut glued to the door veneer, then gluing the opposite door veneer tothe core, stiles and rails, holding the assembly under pressure untilthe glue has had time to set.

2. The method of assembling a door comprising first pre-sizing amultiplicity of separate blocks to uniform thickness and width, feedingsuch blocks out in a continuous string onto a plane work supportingzone, cutting ofi" the string of blocks to predetermined total length,moving the string laterally, feeding out another string of such blocksand cutting off to predetermined length, continuing until a mass ofblocks has been assembled of uniform length and thickness, the width ofthe assembly being approximately equal to the width of the core desired, then placing a veneer door face previously glued in register withthe core, moving the assembly outwardly parallel with one to causeindividual blocks to drop into engagement with the glued veneer,applying the stiles and rails to the core in such wise that the blockssubstantially fill the space with working clearance between the stilesand the rails, gluing the underside of the opposed placing it on thestiles and blocks and then applying pressure to the assembly while theglue sets.

3. The method of building a door which comprises assembling in ahorizontal plane, a plurality of separate blocks o-f uniform thicknessand width in a plurality of parallel lines of equal length, placing aveneer door face, coated with adhesive, in register with the assembly ofcore blocks, immediately below but spaced from them with the glue faceupward, then simultaneously moving the assembly of blocks and the veneerlaterally, successively releasing the blocks, causing them to fall bygravity onto and rest upon the veneer face until all the blocks aresupported by the veneer face, then simultaneously applying to the upperfaces of all the blocks an adhesive coated door face and thencompressing the assembly to cause the adhesive to set, whereby theblocks are each permanently attached to the opposed door faces.

4. The method of building a solid core for flush doors and the likewhich comprises feeding out a strip of filler blocks of uniform widthand thickness but random length, severing the strip to predeterminedover-all length, moving the loosely assembled strip of blocks laterallyout of line with the line of approach of the strip and feeding outanother strip of similar blocks and severing it to length, continuingthis until an assembly of blocks of desired over-all width and lengthand uniform thickness exists, the blocks being loosely in contact withone another, placing under the assembly of blocks in registry therewith,spaced therefrom, a door face coated with adhesive on its upper side,the door face and block assembly being generally parallel and generallyin horizontal planes, then simultaneously displacing the block assemblyand the door face to cause successive lines of blocks to fall by gravityinto engagement with the adhesive covered face until all the blocks restupon the .door face, then applying to the upper surface of the blockassembly a similar coated door face with the cernentitious coatingbetween the block and the face and then applying pressure to cause thecementitious material to set to cement each individual block separatelyto the opposed faces.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS doorveneer,

